


a song someone will sing for me

by nosecoffee



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alex Sells His Soul, Alex is a terrible person, Angelica's a changling, Canon Era, Deals, Demon AU, F/M, Fae AU, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, John Laurens is being victimised, Lafayette isn't taking his shit, M/M, Magic AU, warnings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-03
Updated: 2016-12-03
Packaged: 2018-09-06 05:21:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8736412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nosecoffee/pseuds/nosecoffee
Summary: "Just tell me how to find you."The demon shrugs, nonchalant. "The same way you did tonight.""What do I call you?"He purses his lips, glancing at the corpse beside Alex, stiff and bloody. "Aaron, I think." The demon says.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [salamandersaladman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/salamandersaladman/gifts).



> I stg God was drunk when he created Australia. The possums are hissing loudly outside my window. So I can't sleep. So enjoy.
> 
> Title from "The World Was Wide Enough" from Hamilton: An American Musical

"Your soul," says the demon, "for the life of your friend?"

"Yes," Alex replies. It's a simple word, but just saying it feels like he's choking on his breath.

The demon, eyes dark and small, grins, clicking his fingers.

A colourful cloud floats out of Alex's chest, and he watches it in wonder. It hovers in front of him for a moment before the demon opens his suit jacket and the cloud floats into the inside pocket.

"Is that it?" He asks, bewildered. "No contract? No promise?"

The demon's grin widens, his lips parting to show the razor teeth, white as pearls. "It's all very straightforward, isn't it?"

The candles around Alex and the demon flicker and Alex feels scared.

"Wait!" He cries when the demon begins to flicker, like the candles, the way he did when he appeared, summoned to the middle of a chalk pentagram in an inn's attic.

"Yes?" The demon responds, still smiling, but only softly. He's done what he came to do.

"What if I change my mind? How do I find you?" Alex inquires. He knows he's in no position to take it back. The demon looks down at him, poor little boy, grief stricken.

"Do you think you'll ever change your mind?" The demon asks, head cocked to the side curiously.

"That's not the point." Alex snaps in return. "Just tell me how to find you."

The demon shrugs, nonchalant. "The same way you did tonight."

"What do I call you?"

He purses his lips, glancing at the corpse beside Alex, stiff and bloody. "Aaron, I think." The demon says.

The candles flicker out and by the light from the window, Alex watches John open his eyes and part his lips with breath.

~

"Angelica says you're bad news," Eliza writes, "should I have reason to believe her? She says there's something dark about your aura. Something deadly. I don't believe it. You're as good as the sun is to the Earth."

Alex shakes his head.

Angelica may think she's stealthy, but talking of aura's to her sisters? If he needed any more proof of her being a changeling, he'd have it in this letter.

Of course, he'd never reveal her, being a part of the world she belonged to, himself, even if he'd just enforced himself there.

She's a real Faerie. He's just a human who'd dabbled with magic for the sake of his friend.

Nevertheless, Angelica's hovering warnings to her sister were right. Without a soul, Alex felt like a corpse, like the one he'd saved, rotting to nothing.

He felt empty.

~

Lafayette's eyes flash as Aaron slips into the room.

Alex watches the man notice the demon, and sips from his glass, Mulligan and Laurens' laughter fading to the background.

Aaron locks eyes with the Frenchman, and he winks, before hurrying to Alex's side.

Even as the wind freezes and Alex's friends cease speaking, moving, breathing - Alex feels Lafayette's eyes burning into his skin, fully aware of Aaron's presence.

The world is frozen, Aaron and Alex enclosed in a bubble of stolen time.

"What is it?" Alex hisses.

Aaron purses his lips. "You know I can't save him. He died once. I sense an end is near in him."

"I've already given you my soul, what more could you want? My first child?"

Aaron scowls, taking Alex's drink from his hand and swigging it. Alex doesn't protest. "Do I look like Rumple-fucking-stiltskin to you? No." And he smiles, deadly razor-sharp pearl teeth shining. "I want the soul of your first child."

Alex frowns. "To keep John alive?" He glances to his friend, merry and mirthful in the borrowed time he'd been given.

"He's already been here too long, my friend." Aaron hands him the glass back. "Do we have a deal?"

Alex grimaced at the floor. "Yes."

The word is stolen from his breath as he says it, and time resumes, Aaron flickers away, a ghost.

He turns to celebrate with his friends and feels Lafayette staring intently.

Whatever Alex believes, there is one thing he knows for sure - Lafayette was watching, and he knows the terrible things Alex has done.

~

"No! I won't believe it!" He cries, tossing the things he can - the things he owns - into his knapsack.

"Alex, please," John begs, taking the bag from his hand. "Understand that I did it for honour. Hers and mine. There was no way around it."

"Well, at least you knew about Eliza!" Alex says, fury in his every syllable. He rips the bag away from John, stumbling into his writing desk. His chest feels hollow, and searing, like it's been ripped into. "I never even knew you were married! The things I have sacrificed, the things I have done, John! For you! God forgive me for my sins!"

John looks panicked. "Alex, I know you think it's blasphemous - what we've been doing, but I -"

"No," Alex replies coldly. "No, it's too late. I'm done. I'm going home to my Eliza, and this is where I leave you. No more sacrifices John."

He turns walking out of the tent.

"I've saved you too many times."

~

He doesn't know what to say.

Eliza is too radiant, too happy to think that she knew. She's never known.

But now, now when everything with John is done, and Alex is willing for him to die, he understands the weight of what he'd done the night Lafayette witnessed Alex trade the soul of his child for his lover's life.

Eliza takes his hand and places it on her stomach, a soft curve where a flat stomach had once been.

Alex feels horrified.

He cannot get away fast enough.

He summons Aaron to his basement, broken and scared.

"I take it back," he gasps to the small-eyed demon watching him from inside the scrawled chalk pentagram in the cold stone floor.

"Lovers usually do," Aaron comments, inspecting his nails.

"What?" Alex splutters. "How can you know-?"

"Please," the demon interrupts. "I own your soul, remember? Which means I see every regret and every wish, every emotion. I know he's the closest comrade you have."

Alex licks his chapped lips. "Then you know why I called you here." He doesn't wait for Aaron to confirm. "He's done his time. Give me back my soul. And my son's soul."

"Ah," Aaron smiles, "you see, I can't."

"What?" Alex repeats.

"I can't return the souls. That's part of what I do. There's no refund, I'm afraid."

"But you said if I changed my mind-"

"I asked if you'd want to." Aaron cuts him off again, glaring with his dark eyes. "And you ignored the question. I keep the souls. Your lover dies a war hero. Win-win."

"That's only a win for you." Alex spits.

Aaron shrugs, teeth bared. "Oh well. Too bad."

"You're a monster."

"I'm a demon."

Aaron disappears and Alex crumples.

~

Lafayette watches him cautiously.

"I know what you did." He states.

"Then you know why I did it." Alex replies. "And you know how I regret it."

"Messing with demons is nasty business." Lafayette says. "Didn't anyone ever tell you that?"

"I didn't have much of a choice at the time." Alex mumbles.

"And does our dear Laurens know that his days are numbered?" Alex flinches.

"No."

"And I don't expect that you'll tell him."

"No."

"He has a wife you know."

Alex doesn't dane the comment with a reply.

"And a daughter."

"And I have a son."

"As do I. I would do anything to protect him."

"Then you know why I have to let him die."

"It doesn't mean I have to like it." Lafayette touches Alex hand. "Neither do you."

"I don't." He says. "But it's the right thing to do. He should have died years ago. I didn't give him the privilege."

Lafayette stays silent.

They don't see each other again.

~

Receiving the letter is a relief.

Laurens was his friend, and Alex would never forget that, but the news of his death is mitigating.

Alex summons Aaron to his study. "What does it mean, now that he's dead?" He asks, far from the distraught young boy he'd been when they'd first met. Aaron, however, is unchanged.

"He's free from the inner turmoil you subjected him to by dragging him from the afterlife - and, of course, you'll always have to love with the guilt but that's a given." Aaron replies, looking like a shady business man.

"So, it's all done? I never have to see you again?"

"Sure. But he'll always haunt you. Know that." Aaron's expression turned grim. "Remember this, dear Alexander; gambling is sinful, and you gambled with lives. I'll see you when I see you, Hamilton."

Aaron flickered away, gone for now.

Alex is left alone in his study, suddenly feeling less elated.

It was like Aaron had sewed rocks into his stomach.

He couldn't ever forget John.

~

And Philip wouldn't let him.

Because when he was born, he looked just like him.

The only exception being his small, dark eyes, boring unforgiving holes into Alex whenever he was in sight.

  
Fin.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this. Please leave a comment and a kudos, and track me down on Tumblr @nose-coffee. Thanks!


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